Reproductive cancer cryopreservation services: Patient information, clinical advice, and support.

Fertility preservation services must offer information to patients, prior to their visit, so that they have time to read and digest the information, and also have the opportunity to write down any questions they wish to ask at the oncofertility consultation appointment. Appointments must be offered immediately, based on a specifically designed referral form. Each fertility service providing oncology cryopreservation should have a robust map of the patient's journey to include referral, counseling session, medical consultation, informed consent, treatment plan, and follow-up.

SARS-CoV-2, fertility and assisted reproduction.

Background: In 2020, SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on the access to and provision of ART treatments. Gradually, knowledge of the virus and its transmission has become available, allowing ART activities to resume. Still, questions on the impact of the virus on human gametes and fertility remain.

Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infected pregancies after medically assisted reproduction.

Study Question: What is the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection on the outcome of a pregnancy after medically assisted reproduction (MAR)?

Summary Answer: Our results suggest that MAR pregnancies are not differentially affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to spontaneous pregnancies.

What Is Known Already: Information on the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on pregnancy after MAR is scarce when women get infected during MAR or early pregnancy, even though such information is vital for informing women seeking pregnancy.

Study Design, Size, Duration: Data from SARS-CoV-2 affected MAR pregnancies were collected between May 2020 and June 2021 through a voluntary data collection, organised by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

The calm after the storm: re-starting ART treatments safely in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created a significant impact on medically assisted reproduction (MAR) services. ESHRE decided to mobilize resources in order to collect, analyse, monitor, prepare and disseminate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) knowledge specifically related to ART and early pregnancy. This article presents the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic focusing on reproductive healthcare.

A picture of medically assisted reproduction activities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

Study Question: How did coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impact on medically assisted reproduction (MAR) services in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic (March to May 2020)?

Summary Answer: MAR services, and hence treatments for infertile couples, were stopped in most European countries for a mean of 7 weeks.

What Is Known Already: With the outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe, non-urgent medical care was reduced by local authorities to preserve health resources and maintain social distancing. Furthermore, ESHRE and other societies recommended to postpone ART pregnancies as of 14 March 2020.

Survey on ART and IUI: legislation, regulation, funding and registries in European countries: The European IVF-monitoring Consortium (EIM) for the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

Study Question: How are ART and IUI regulated, funded and registered in European countries?

Summary Answer: Of the 43 countries performing ART and IUI in Europe, and participating in the survey, specific legislation exists in only 39 countries, public funding (also available in the 39 countries) varies across and sometimes within countries and national registries are in place in 31 countries.

What Is Known Already: Some information devoted to particular aspects of accessibility to ART and IUI is available, but most is fragmentary or out-dated. Annual reports from the European IVF-Monitoring (EIM) Consortium for ESHRE clearly mirror different approaches in European countries regarding accessibility to and efficacy of those techniques.